There are several methods for sending data over the Internet, including electronic mail (email), File Transfer Protocol (FTP), and Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP).
Internet email is generally not secure, and in typical email configurations, users need to initiate manual retrieval of email messages, and manually print out the messages. A brief summary of how a typical Internet email communication is accomplished and which points out these issues is provided below.
A sender email application (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) is configured by the user (or by a system administrator) with the Internet Protocol (IP) address or domain name of the sender Internet Service Provider (ISP) Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP) server. The user composes an email in the sender email application and selects “send.” The sender email application initiates a connection to the sender SMTP server using the SMTP protocol, and transfers the email to the sender SMTP server.
Since SMTP is based on a “push” model, an SMTP server, or any device with an SMTP server, needs to have a fixed IP address or domain name so other SMTP servers are able to contact it. For a home user product, such as a home user with a cable modem service, it is typically not practical to have a device with an SMTP server in it.
Based on the destination IP address associated with the email, the sender SMTP server initiates a connection to an appropriate receiver SMTP server, and transfers the email to the receiver SMTP server using the SMTP protocol. The receiver SMTP server may not be the final SMTP server. Typically, there will be several of these SMTP server to SMTP server transfers. At each point, the SMTP server looks at the email address and knows the next SMTP server to pass the email to. The SMTP servers do not know or care whether the next SMTP server is an intermediate server or the final step. The email message is automatically pushed along, until it reaches the final receiver SMTP server.
A receiver email application (e.g., Microsoft Outlook) is configured by the user (or by a system administrator) with the Internet Protocol (IP) address or domain name of the receiver ISP SMTP server. The receiver email application initiates a connection to the receiver SMTP server, typically using a POP3 or IMAP protocol, or possibly a proprietary protocol if the receiver email application and the receiver SMTP server are provided by the same vendor/service provider. And the receiver email application retrieves emails from the receiver SMTP server.
Typically, the receiver email application does not automatically run and print out all received email messages automatically. The receiver email application typically runs manually when desired by the user, and prints out messages only when desired by the user. This is because the user performs a filtering function to screen out undesirable emails (spam) and emails that do not require printing. This manual filtering function cannot easily be automated.
Between the sending computer and the receiving computer, the email packets may travel through several computers, and the exact routing is not necessarily fixed. Many computers may get to see the email packets, and the user essentially has no control over this. Thus, Internet email is generally not secure because any computer along the way can snoop, copy, or see the exact email message that the receiver will see. There is also no sender authentication in SMTP. The sender can say that they are whomever they want, and no verification is performed. Only the destination email address is needed for the email to be transferred to the destination. At any point in time, a computer passing the email packets along has the ability to alter any history of the packets. The only thing that needs to be preserved is the destination email address.
Other methods of Internet document transfer include FTP and HTTP. Both of these methods use servers in the communication devices. The servers have the same IP address problem as an SMTP server. FTP provides authentication capabilities, but IT administration is typically needed to implement the capabilities.
The security of the Internet—a public network that, by design, saves the transmitted data at intermediate locations—is not foolproof. There are techniques to increase the security of data sent over the Internet, but these techniques typically involve either a computer, an information technology (IT) expert to setup the system, or both.
Consumer companies that wish to transfer confidential documents or other data to their customers typically use a process similar to the following:
(1) Offline, via phone or mail, an account login and password are arranged. This communication occurs “out of band”, not over the Internet, for security purposes.
(2) Typically, when a new document or other data is ready, the company sends the customer a notification email. The document is not typically emailed, because conventional Internet email is generally not secure.
(3) The user “pulls” information from the Internet by a manual process of logging onto a company website and saving/downloading a document or other data.
(4) The user typically manually prints out the document, and/or saves an electronic copy.
In the above-described method, multiple communication media are used for security purposes, but the customer must perform numerous manual operations.
In addition to transmitting data via the Internet, data may also be transmitted via facsimile (fax). Normal faxes do not provide security for any eavesdropping on the phone line, plus the receiver typically has no secure mechanism (not subject to impersonation) to know the identification of the sender.
There are some fax products that send data securely over the phone lines (e.g., the SCS-700 from Copy-Tele, Inc.). Other fax products include scramblers that encrypt fax data (e.g., FaxScrambler from Thomas Investigative Publications, Inc., FS916 Fax Scrambler from Electromax International, and Surety Fax Device 3700 from AT&T). These fax products are costly, and the cost of a phone connection for fax communications is typically more expensive per byte than an Internet connection. In addition, if a communication device uses only the phone line for secure transmission, the data can be rerouted or entirely captured by a party that gains access to the phone line.